


Tragedy: It Tears Us Apart Until We Have No Choice But to Come Together

by minnemouse_BEANS



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Dead Jason Grace, mourning fic, sad fic, this came from me wishing id gotten to actually see the characters mourn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27073966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnemouse_BEANS/pseuds/minnemouse_BEANS





	Tragedy: It Tears Us Apart Until We Have No Choice But to Come Together

**Nico**

Nico di Angelo was watching some woman review a book called Hawk that seemed to be part of a series called Maximum Ride, not that he knew anything about the subject or intended to learn any time soon. Frankly, he just wanted the noise. He wanted to hear someone talk about something as simple as a bad book. 

His friend was two days dead. He was the kind of tired that sleep couldn’t cure. And he was painfully aware of any silence. 

So he played anything and everything. Movies, music, audiobooks, YouTube videos. Regardless of whether or not he liked it. 

So, he watched this woman, unaware of the tragedy of the sixteen year old in a box, list off the flaws of a book he’d never heard of. 

Someone knocked at his door, and he paused the video to go open it, figuring they’d want to talk for at least a little bit, and would be annoyed by the video.

Thalia Grace stood on the other side of the door. “I’m sorry,” she said before he could say anything. “I didn’t know where else to go, I don’t know where Percy or Annabeth live, and I have no idea where Grover was, and I didn’t want to stay in the hunt, and I don’t wanna be alone. I’m sorry. I know I’m probably not welcome here.” 

“No, no, you’re alright,” Nico said, “To be perfectly honest, I was just about ready to go sit with someone myself. Come in.”

She did, and it occurred to Nico how exhausted she looked. The most recent times he’d seen her, she’d been wearing an elaborate looking outfit somewhere between punk and goth, and equally elaborate makeup. However, today she wore a worn out white tanktop, and faded bluejeans he would have guessed she owned. Her pale face was devoid of makeup, and her eyes were puffy and red. Black-dyed hair had grown out so he could see her blond roots. 

She looked like she’d had a tank roll over the top of her.

“I’m sorry for showing up so unannounced.” She said, sitting in the chair Nico had gestured for her to take. “I didn’t want to stay in the hunt, it occurred to me that I never wanna watch my friends get old and die while I was first dealing with the shock.”  
“Yeah, that’s fair,” Nico told her, “and I really don’t mind. Do you want something to eat? I have some leftovers.”

“Okay, sure. I need to eat.”

  
  


“Piper gave me his journal. Said both he and Percy started keeping one after what happened with Hera,” Thalia told him after they finished eating the leftover pizza and wings Nico had produced. “She told me that I deserve to have it.” 

“You gonna read it?” Nico asked, clearing away their paper plates, used paper towels, and empty cups.

“I don’t know.” She told him. “On one hand, it feels like I should at least flip through it, but on the other… it feels like reading someone else's diary. He wrote those things down for himself, not me.” She sighed. “I’ll probably lock it away in a box somewhere.”

“I can’t pull him up and ask for his two cents, even if I had the physical strength to do so, nor can I go down and see him.” He told her. “I can’t look at his ghost right now.”

“It feels too much like the nail in the coffin,” Thalia said, “once you see his ghost, you have to face the injustice that he was not-even-seventeen year old hero and warrior who died on a mission that should never have gone that wrong.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Nico agreed. “I can’t quite pretend it away as it is, but seeing him would be too final, and I can’t take that just yet.” 

Thalia put her head in her hands, and they sat there for a long time not crying because there were no tears left to cry. Not saying anything because there was nothing left to say. 

It was enough right now to sit together and know that they weren’t alone, both in the sense of awareness of the other’s presence and in their mourning of the boy who’d never really had the chance to live without the influence of magic. The boy who’d never quite gotten the chance to be a child. The boy who should never have had to be a “not-even-seventeen year old hero and warrior who died on a mission that never should have gone wrong.” 

They sat in silence mourning Jason Grace. 

And for the first time in two days, the silence was welcome.


End file.
